T he alertness and vigilance of the Iran Cyber Police (ICP) over the National Center of Cyberspace (NCC), the legislature and judiciary, the interior ministry and the ministry of communications and information technology, is an endorsement of the crucial role of the cyber police in devising effective cyber strategies, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said at a conference on cybercrime, on Tuesday.
The ratification of the Computer Crime Law “has provided a safe and sound virtual environment and the NCC and ICP have helped institutionalize cyber law in the community.” The cyber police are successful in tracking 90% of the crimes, he said, quoted by IRNA.
Advanced technical infrastructure has seen a relatively low rate of cybercrime in Iran vis-à-vis global rates, despite the soaring number of Internet users (46 million) in the country, Fazli said.
The two-day (May 26-27) conference “Cybercrimes in the Interconnected World 2015,” is organized by the ICP on behalf of the Law Enforcement Forces in cooperation with the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), at the International Conference Center of the Islamic Republic Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) in Tehran. The conference seeks to help develop regional and international cooperation, gather knowledge, and share experiences on combating supranational cybercrimes.
Cybercrime, or computer crime, is any crime that involves a computer and a network and is categorized into fraud and financial crimes, cyber-terrorism, cyber-extortion, cyber-warfare, as well as obscene or offensive content such as harassment, threats, and drug trafficking. Internationally, it includes espionage, financial theft, and other cross-border crimes.
More than 70% of cybercrime is committed in Europe and 40% in Asia on intercontinental scales. It is found that two in three convicted cybercriminals are between 15 and 26 years of age.
“In the third millennium where the virtual world and new generation technologies are rapidly developing, a large part of economic, commercial, cultural, social, and government transactions and communications are undertaken in the virtual space. In the circumstances, a country’s vital systems are either a part of that space or controlled by it,” the minister added.
Security Crucial
The police chief, Brigadier General Hossein Ashtari said: “As virtual space has grown exponentially and the public and governments are a real, active part of it, therefore, maintaining its security in all regional and international regions or organizations must be meticulously planned, invested in, and controlled.”
Iran has focused on communication technology in the past decade under the 20-year Vision. “The Supreme Council of Cyberspace (SCC) was established following a directive by Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on March 7, 2012, to supervise all pertinent matters,” he noted.
Transnational organized crimes transcend borders leaving a detrimental impact on a nation’s economic, social and political spheres. Thus it calls for strong transnational responses. Consequently, tracking cybercrimes by improving cyber diplomacy was put on the government agenda in October 2011.
The confab is hosting representatives from INTERPOL member states, chiefs of Cyber Police, officials from Iran’s Department of Organized Crime and national executive bodies in the field of cyber security, and state authorities.
Advancement in cyberspace diplomacy provides for meticulous tracking of cyber crimes, and is significant in global crime detection, said Brigadier General Kamal Hadianfar, head of the ICP at a press conference earlier. “Such conferences can help boost international police cooperation to prevent, detect, and combat crime,” he stressed, reports Mehr News Agency.
